diff --git a/ChangeLog.asciidoc b/ChangeLog.asciidoc
index cd141b0c6..e266890f4 100644
--- a/ChangeLog.asciidoc
+++ b/ChangeLog.asciidoc
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ https://weechat.org/files/releasenotes/ReleaseNotes-devel.html[release notes]
 
 === New features
 
+* core: fix display of invalid UTF-8 chars in bars
 * core: allow pointer as list name in evaluation of hdata (closes #450)
 * core: add signal "signal_sighup"
 * api: add function string_eval_path_home()
diff --git a/src/gui/curses/gui-curses-bar-window.c b/src/gui/curses/gui-curses-bar-window.c
index 6f143cd33..bb9854d7a 100644
--- a/src/gui/curses/gui-curses-bar-window.c
+++ b/src/gui/curses/gui-curses-bar-window.c
@@ -473,6 +473,7 @@ gui_bar_window_draw (struct t_gui_bar_window *bar_window,
     content = gui_bar_window_content_get_with_filling (bar_window, window);
     if (content)
     {
+        utf8_normalize (content, '?');
         if ((filling == GUI_BAR_FILLING_HORIZONTAL)
             && (bar_window->scroll_x > 0))
         {